Monday, October 25, 2010

Adoration of Animation ♥

so... apologies for the lack of posts over the past few days, i guess i've been enjoying my time off College a little too much!

i've basically spent the past 2 days just watching movies (with the odd bit of house cleaning thrown in) and pretty much chilling on the sofa. i'm not going to lie...

it's been blissful but now the real world beckons again and i have commission work to get done and lots of chores to do!

but before i morph back into an artistic and domestic goddess i thought i'd do a little post about one of my fave things in life...

Animation

it's no secret that i'm a big kid (it's true... i know it and you know it) and i have a particular penchant for animated films of all kinds from flawlessly perfect CGI creations such as Finding Nemo, Shrek, UP (and the up and coming Disney film... Tangled)

heck... i even love foreign animation like Belleville Rendezvous (Les Triplettes de Belleville), Persepolis or of course... just about anything that comes out of Studio Ghibli! (Howl's Moving Castle, Nausicaa - Valley of the Winds, Laputa - Castle in the sky, Ponyo etc etc etc)

i'm going to be honest though... i am a massive Disney fan,

true i don't always love what they do but when it comes to animation... they get it spot on almost every single time!

although to be honest, it's also a long time since i've seen a film as charming as Studio Ghibli's Ponyo (yes... i know Disney helped produce it to the Western World but it is still a Ghibli creation)

but seriously now... words cannot describe how excited i was to see the Princess and the Frog when it first came out (and yes... i did see if 4 times SO WHAT) and i have watched it over and over again since...

you may be thinking 'grow up' but i literally do not want to such a thing! in fact... as long as there are animated films and cartoons on tv i shall continue to sit and watch them, enthralled as if i were still 5 years old!

i don't know what it is about animation that makes me so god-damn happy! i love everything about it, the colours (or lack thereof), the music, the songs, the story, the characters... it's all good

it's not just Disney though... it's that moment in an animated film when the music fits so perfectly with what's happening on the screen that it's like magic...

audios and visuals in perfect harmony, THAT is why i love animation so much! (the ocean scene in Belleville Rendezvous is a perfect example of this, boats and waves in perfect sync with Mozart's Mass in C Minor, K 427, "Great"- Kyrie. it is a truly epic scene and a wonderful feat of imagination and animation... genius

i also love the way that animation isn't just for children (contrary to popular belief) since half the time, the writers pop in more than a fair share of jokes that are clearly targeted at the grown ups in the cinema audience (Shrek... i'm looking in your direction here especially) but that just adds to their charm

you really grow up with these films and i find that every time i re-watch one of the old animated films i remember from my childhood, i spot something new or pick up on another joke i wouldn't have understood when i was little.

so going back to the music fitting with the animation...

today i've self indulged a little by watching both of the genius creations that are Fantasia (the original) 1940 version and Fantasia 2000 (the December 1999 version... in case the title wasn't enough of a give away as to when it came out!)

in case you've never seen either... basically they are some of the best examples of animation i've seen (considering the dates they were made). each film contains very little talking, a little bit of live action footage, dozens of original animated characters (+ a few friendly faces), lots of super abstract animated scenes and wonderful scores that interact with the animation seamlessly.

the original 1940's version is wonderful but i kind of prefer the 2000 version.

so... favourite part of Fantasia 2000???

the Firebird scene without a doubt!

there is something so ethereally magical and spectacular about watching Igor Stravinsky's Firebird Suite played out on a screen by a beautifully animated Spring Sprite, a kind Elk and the truly terrifying Firebird that she awakens by accident in the nearby volcano... it is just gorgeous!